The Surprising Death of Mockingjay

Warning: MAJOR Spoiler Below

The Hunger Games is a wonderful trilogy of books. It follows the adventures of Katniss Everdeen as she's unwillingly made into the symbol of a rebellion. The third book in the trilogy is my favorite and has one of the saddest events of the entire trilogy. Hell, Collins took a huge chance doing it and I really hope the movie adaptation keeps it or else I'll be as mad as I was at the end of the Cujo movie adaptation.

The event that caused me so much pain, but I love it anyways, is Prim's death.

I enjoy her death for a few reasons:

1.) You didn't see it coming.

My favorite type of deaths are the ones you don't see coming. This makes it so that the death is so much more painful. If you see a death coming you are able to prepare yourself. You're able to put on armor so that the death doesn't hurt you as much as it could've.

Prim wasn't someone you expected to die. She was Katniss' sister and she was on the safe list. ESPECIALLY since this is a Young Adult book.

2.) Her death meant something.

A death can hurt you and be wonderful, but what really makes a death special is when it means something. When all your tears aren't in vain.

Prim dying caused Katniss to make her first real decision in the entire trilogy (not counting her decision to volunteer in the first place). In that I mean it wasn't organized by one side or the other in order to use her. Katniss is unique as she's a hero that doesn't mean to be a hero but keeps getting pushed into the role while all she cares about is her family (but that's a story for another post). So when Prim dies that leads her to killing President Coin.

3.) It was beyond heartbreaking.

With any death, to really effect me, it needs to touch me. It needs to touch me and pull my heart out. Then I have to like the extreme pain for some unknown reason. Maybe since I read depressing stuff a lot and love it when I finally feel something.

Prim was someone I didn't want to die. I wanted her to live so when the war was over Katniss could find peace in her sister. Katniss started her whole journey because she wanted to keep Prim safe. So Prim dying is ironic in that the whole reason Katniss did everything was lost to her by the end.

So I really REALLY hope that Prim's death is kept in the movie adaptation. Prim's death IS important. She helps push Katniss' story forward in that if Prim didn't die President Coin could still be alive to make President Snow's reign seem like Christmas. Prim's death also shows that not everyone gets out of war alive.

Star Wars: Red Harvest (Joe Schreiber)

Title: Red Harvest

Series: Star Wars

Author: Joe Schreiber

Released: 2010

Rating: 3/6

Basic Plot: The era of the Old Republic is a dark and dangerous time, as Jedi Knights valiantly battle the Sith Lords and their ruthless armies. But the Sith have disturbing plans—and none more so than the fulfillment of Darth Scabrous’s fanatical dream, which is about to become nightmarish reality.

Unlike those other Jedi sidelined to the Agricultural Corps—young Jedi whose abilities have not proved up to snuff—Hestizo Trace possesses one extraordinary Force talent: a gift with plants. Suddenly her quiet existence among greenhouse and garden specimens is violently destroyed by the arrival of an emissary from Darth Scabrous. For the rare black orchid that she has nurtured and bonded with is the final ingredient in an ancient Sith formula that promises to grant Darth Scabrous his greatest desire.

But at the heart of the formula is a never-before-seen virus that’s worse than fatal—it doesn’t just kill, it transforms. Now the rotting, ravenous dead are rising, driven by a bloodthirsty hunger for all things living—and commanded by a Sith Master with an insatiable lust for power and the ultimate prize: immortality...no matter the cost.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Horror Elements
Let's start off with the good stuff. There is one reason to read this book and it's for the killer zombies. The times it focuses on the zombies and lovely death scenes this book shines. If it was a movie it'd be a glorious b-horror movie. I admit I read it because I wanted to see how zombies would fit into the Star Wars universe. And they fit in fine. Problems arise when focus is given to the characters.

The Characters
The characters all do what they need to do. The big bad is out to do whatever for the sake of immortality, there is the student that is the best and wants even more power, there is the brother that is out to rescue his sister, and all the rest can be named by their importance to the plot. This doesn't mean the characters are godawful. I felt myself caring for some and they do what is needed in this type of story. So I didn't mind.

The Length
The length of the book is good for what it is. The pacing doesn't slow down so that the plot can't linger too long on any one sub-plot. This makes any defects of the novel easy to glance over since so much gory glory is happening. While having the characters given more depth would've been great, the fact is that this novel is telling a type of story that doesn't need that.

Final Thoughts
Rojo Trace, aka Hestizo Trace's brother, has something strange happen to him. He gets hit on by a woman who has a thing for banging Jedi, I guess. But it's only one scene and not commented on that much. Just glanced over and I had to stare at that part for a good five minutes before moving on. That was the biggest WTF moment of the novel. If you don't like zombies or gore, I wouldn't recommend reading this book. But if you're a Star Wars fan and have to read and see everything in the Expanded Universe, you'll have to read this no matter what I say.

The Eternal Heart: Fragile Package 1

 Ever since John Connor had announced the fact that he had decided to stay with Katherine and not be with me, things had become harder for me. When I had a moment to think I would think of all that could’ve been and how it couldn’t be now.

But whenever I focused on Resistance business I forgot about my feelings for John, if only for a little bit. I’d focus on not getting myself or my fellow Resistance fighters killed. I practiced and exercised more than I needed to. However, I never pushed myself past my limits. I didn’t want to be in a battle and be too worn down to continue.

John still gave me private lessons and those had become less awkward as time went on. But our glances at each other never went away. I doubted my feelings for him could ever go away. However, I didn’t interfere with his marriage and he would try to set me up with someone from time to time. I would never go out with someone other than John, though, so his attempts were useless.

I had mixed feelings about going on the simple mission with Katherine, Barnes, and Star.

Katherine was John’s wife and was still uneasy about John’s feelings towards me, but I still felt I had to protect her. If she died then John would never forgive me.

Barnes and I had become closer. By closer I mean that he kept his hate of me to a bare minimum when I was around him.

Star was the only one I didn’t have any bad feelings towards. Kyle Reese and I had been on a mission or two together so I had learned to trust his judgment. When I had first met him he had said he loved Star. I trusted his opinion and was going to make sure Star came out of her first mission safe.

I finished getting ready and headed to the chopper. I waved at some of my comrades and they nodded back. I was glad that they had opened up to me more. At least I didn’t get the feeling that they would try and kill me the first chance they got.

Upon arriving to the chopper I saw my team members. Barnes was standing close to Katherine and having a conversation with her. This didn’t surprise me at all since he was one of John’s most loyal soldiers. Plus he had another reason.

I controlled the grimace that tried to come to my face as I looked at Katherine’s round belly. It was a painful reminder of how intimate John was with her. Barnes nodded at me and Katherine continued to ignore me.

It was then I looked at Star who was nervous. It had always been hard to read her, almost like she was a machine herself, but I could tell she was uneasy.

“Hey.” I said to her as I walked towards her.

“Hi.” She replied and looked me directly in the eyes for a second before she got too afraid and looked away.

“You fought against the machines since you were young.” I told her. “You and Kyle managed to stay alive until you ran into John.”

“I know I’ll survive.”

“Then why take so long to go on a mission of your own?”

“I’ve been on guard duty. I’ve been to every training session. Hell, I’ve helped train new recruits from time to time.”

“But you’ve never been on a mission of your own.”

Star looked at something that was on the opposite side of the hanger from me. Like Barnes she had dark skin, but unlike Barnes her hairstyle was different. It was poofy. Since I didn’t have memories from before Judgment Day, I didn’t know what to call the hairstyle. But it was nice.

“What’s the reason?” I asked. “I know it’s not because you’re scared of dying.”

“I don’t want to be in charge.” Star whispered and looked around to see if anyone else was listening. “If I do good I’ll be told to handle people’s lives.”

“It’s not a good feeling.” I said, even though I had only been in charge of a mission only once before this. And that was only because my commander had died on the mission. “But if you don’t want responsibility, it means you’re less likely to do something stupid.”

“So I guess that means giving you power is bad.” Barnes said as he walked up behind me.

“Hey, at least I’m not you. Means I can’t do too bad.”

Star hid a smile and I looked at my group.

“Get in the chopper, we need to head out quickly.” I told them.

“It’s only a scouting mission, we don’t need to hurry.” Barnes replied.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be danger.”

With that Barnes and Star went in the chopper and Katherine joined me in the cockpit.

I checked that the chopper was going to work throughout the scouting mission and avoided Katherine’s gaze when I could. It was like she was trying to kill me with a look.

“You know I had to convince John to allow you on this mission.” I told her, trying to bring her to my side.

“John didn’t mention that to me.” Katherine countered.

“Because I managed to convince him before he said something to you. I told him it was only a scouting mission and that the twins won’t be in danger.”

“How did you know I was going to have twins?”

“John told me. He was really excited about the news.”

“What else does he tell you?”

“Stuff I pretend to be interested in.”

“But I’m not going to give birth for a week or two, John shouldn’t be worried.”

“Tell John that.” I said as I took off.

I felt the tension in the cockpit ease. I knew Katherine didn’t like me, but she had to know that John trusted me. He trusted me but wasn’t going to leave her for me.

------------------------------------------------------------

 All of The Eternal Heart
The Eternal Heart tumblr
The Eternal Trilogy Blog
The Eternal Heart on a03

Catherine Weaver's Allegiance

One of the bad things about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) being cancelled was that there were a shit load of questions left unanswered. Now I'm aware some series end on a cliffhanger on purpose (looking at you, Animorphs), but this wasn't the case for TSCC.

One of those unanswered questions was who Catherine Weaver is really loyal to. Now some people may think that she has to be a good guy as the plot twist in the finale points to that. But that's really not the case. There is no clear answer as to whether her ultimate goal is to help John Connor past his usefulness to battle Skynet.

Let's look at what has been shown in the series:

In Weaver's backstory we see that she was going to be asked by John to join the Resistance. She was put in a case to prevent her from escaping. When she was let out by unsuspecting Resistance fighters she didn't show any regret in killing them. So she isn't loyal to the Resistance as a whole.

And why was she put in a case in the first place?

Was it just a test by the Terminators Against Skynet?

Or are the Terminators Against Skynet split into groups themselves? Some having different end goals than others?

Maybe one group of the Terminators Against Skynet decided that the Resistance should have the help of the T-1001 but didn't want to leave it to chance. So they would lock her up in the case and then she'd be let out at a place where it would be either she joins or dies?

When Catherine Weaver is in present day she does seem to relate to humans but also puts John Henry's well being above her 'daughter's'. Near the very end of the finale, Weaver says for James to take care of Savannah but earlier in the series she made a remark that Savannah came second to Henry. So Savannah had only a limited time of being useful before it didn't matter if she died.

From a story Jesse Flores tells Derek Reese in Season 2, it is my headcanon that Weaver rescues Derek at one point and so Derek knows what she is but hasn't told anyone. He hasn't even told Jesse.

So Weaver being a good guy isn't certain. All that is certain is that she's against Skynet which means she may be okay with John dying once he's not useful to her anymore.

The Giver and Color

And today I found out that this is the first book in a series. Now I have more books on my to-read list.

UPDATE: The Giver will be shot in both color and black and white according to this article.

Now I know making a movie adaptation of a book is a hard thing to do. Hell, I would never want to be in charge of one. People would want it to be true to the book and others wouldn't mind the adaptation changing things. And people will hate you for the adaptation no matter what.

But one thing you can't change in a movie adaptation is the heart and soul of the book/source material. So making a story modern day (Elementary and Hannibal) is okay but if you change important parts of the source material (DOOM and Nickelodeon's Animorphs tv show) then not so good.

Movie adaptations sometimes feel as if they were written by people who had no clue about what made the books so enjoyable. So when I see a trailer I try to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and other times the trailer makes me so mad I just rage while thinking about it.

The Giver's trailer is in color. Now I haven't read the book since fifth or sixth grade so I don't remember what happens all that well and I'm using Wikipedia as a basic guide to what happened. But the thing I remember is that the book is in black and white. This is part of the symbolism of the book.

The Giver is a dystopian novel. I am a big fan of this sub-genre since it tends to show what people value at any given time. They are fears of a given time kept for all eternity in story form.

The Giver's big thing is sameness. That everything is the same to keep the peace and even color has been taken out of people's lives. This isn't the first time that pain being removed to keep the peace has been done in a Young Adult novel (and, yes, I'm focusing on Young Adult novels written before and during The Giver's release, at least when I read The Giver).

So the movie getting the color wrong makes me doubt if it can get anything right. The color in the trailer is so distracting for me that I can't remember what was shown in the trailer. If I ever do an insightful look at a The Giver trailer I will have to watch it a few more times to review it.

The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)

Title: The Silence of the Lambs

Series: Hannibal

Author: Thomas Harris

Released: 1988

Rating: 5/6

Basic Plot: A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname--Buffalo Bill--is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter--Hannibal the Cannibal--who is kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs--and ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Will Graham's Life
At the end of Red Dragon you're left wondering if Molly is going to leave Will or not. That and Will's drug trip. In this book don't expect answers to his love life. But that's not to say you don't get any answers about how he's doing. You find out he's a drunk in Florida with a messed up face. Oh the joy!

Clarice and Hannibal
I had prepared myself to start to ship these two and now I can't wait to read Hannibal to watch it evolve. Upon seeing the movie I could see how people could want these two together. For every time Hannibal teases Clarice, he tries to help her. It's complicated in this book, mainly because Hannibal being in a normal relationship isn't going to happen anytime soon. I mean...Hannibal isn't the guy to do dinner and the movies. Well, without the dinner being people.

Hannibal the Cannibal
I was first brought into the folds of the Hannibal fandom through the NBC show Hannibal. So there are many a joke made about almost no one realizing Hannibal is the one they're after. So when the line 'Hannibal the Cannibal' came up I was just wondering why no one has put the two together. I know that it's because the FBI doesn't work that way but...I can think whatever I want no matter how illogical!

Final Thoughts
So far, this is my favorite of the Hannibal books. Maybe it's because of the fact that Hannibal really gets his big chance to shine. You get Clarice Starling who, not only dealing with struggling to become an actual FBI agent, deals with sexism time and again. Instead of losing her cool, she stands up to it. She is great, never mind the other characters. And poor Bella!

Steamwork Popoko and Tigrean To Enjoy

Two new and cool Steamwork pets! Nice way to close out the Masquerade this year.

The Steamwork Popoko looks very confused. But in a comforting old professor sort of way. It's like he'd be working on a brand new invention and not remember what day it was. The eyes are the most adorable part of this pet.

The Steamwork Tigrean is one of the most beautiful pets to come out in a little bit. This pet looks like a bad ass. Like it will tear you apart for thinking it's a simple pet. This is a pet that I would use to take over the world.

If I was going to take over the world...